Bilingual financial analyst with experience in business valuation, financial modeling and data management and analytics. Can demonstrate high levels of rigor and logical thinking in complex problem solving situations. Detail-oriented and known for giving a high-quality service to clients. Values teamwork and collaborates extensively with his peers in completing projects. Enthusiastic, motivated and has demonstrated an ease in establishing professional relations.

Last weekend was the launch of a brand new website, an initiative of former classmate and hardcore activist Elliott Verreault. Accurately titled It’s One Humanity, the website was first created last year as an online graphic petition to urge heads of states at COP16 in reaching a universal and legally-binding agreement regarding global climate change. After obtaining thousands of signatures from around the world and being well-represented in Cancún, there was no doubt that going global was a model that worked in reaching countless people towards the same cause.

Fast-forwarding to today, the website has evolved and has become a platform for anyone who would like to promote the cause they’re supporting, the humanitarian project they’re working on, or simply their thoughts on current local and world issues.

It’s no surprise that the website is also very well built; the executive team is made up of seasoned global human rights activists and strategists that know how to get people on board. Being a really sleek and simple to use social network, it even lets us use our Facebook profile to log in, making it even more easier to connect with other fellow activists, whether you be interested in climate change, world hunger, or any other human welfare issue.

Although social networking is not new anymore, It’s One Humanity has reinvented the model for those wishing to gain global perspective on activism. And even if the project is still in its infancy, I have no doubt it will be the starting point for many successful international philanthropic endeavours.

Two weeks ago, two classmates and I braved the polar temperatures of Kingston, ON, to attend Queen’s University most prized Business event, the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (ICBC). In short, it is a competition that incorporates various disciplines in Business, namely accounting, ethics, and marketing. Our team got selected last semester to represent Bishop’s University at the business policy event, which is considered by many to be the ”crown” event of the competition, being one of the founding disciplines when ICBC started thirty-three years ago.

I will avoid spending too much time on the mechanics of the competition itself, and will instead pride myself on the fact that we got second place at the event, losing only to the University of Calgary. Thanks to one of our teammates who had previous experience in that kind of presentations, we succeeded in bringing a school that had never been represented at Canada’s most prestigious Business competition to (almost) the top of the list; a true underdog story.

But aside from the competition itself, I found it very inspiring to share thoughts and experiences with people from very different backgrounds, disciplines, and nationalities. Taking rivalry aside, it was very refreshing to connect and network in a truly and purely organic fashion, simply for the sake of exchanging ideas. I did leave with a renewed and bettered view on what I did in all aspects of life, how I did it, and why I did it.

After celebrating our victory, being congratulated and reflecting on it all, I was glad I took part of such an experience and that it contributed to the expansion of my perspectives on, well, much more than just academics or Business alone.

So long since I've been keeping up with this thing, caught up in the midst of countless changes, ups and downs, and perhaps too self-centered to think about opening up again.

For me it felt like the days that passed were all the same yet I somehow end up today in a place that is worlds away from where I was, from who I was. It's funny how I never take the time to stop and appreciate what's around me until it's gone and nothing but a fading memory. As I was moving last year to start settling, I actually took a moment to watch out the window one last time and noticed how great the view was. That's when I realized that I have spent two years in that place and never got to fully appreciate the surroundings or to absorb completely what it felt just to be there.

Learning to be, to me feels like trying to heal.

As I go through life, like everybody else, it seems that the smallest reminders of having to, one day, not be anymore is of a greater concern than most. I don't consider myself as being afraid of death, but the anxiety of when it's bound to happen is constant. Somehow a lot of moments when I should feel alive, and nothing else, are a little shaded by the thought that it's not going to be permanent and that, one day, conscience fades and so do memories.

I envy those who believe.

I am writing this as a way out, hoping to learn to be alive without worrying about its closure. I hope to soon be able to say that I feel like the rest of the world. Because people don't live as if they were to die tomorrow; they live as if they would never die.

So school ended something like three weeks ago - turned out that my grades were way better than expected - and I've been since wandering between my place and my parent's to unscramble a bit of what I'd become.

Got a five-day notice that I got the job I wanted in Montreal and got four to find a place to live for the summer. After all the mayhem it caused, it's good to finally realize that everything is slowly falling into place and that I'm ready to start by tomorrow. It's incredible how no matter I think I'm confidently driving to where I'm going, sometimes I just feel like I'm only desperately trying to catch the train that rarely stops.

Had a dinner for Mother's Day before moving here, and it was perhaps the first time I realized we were now four generations sitting at the table. Suddenly, all the discussions I've had with my folks about money for moving and school were pointless. It was also the first time I've realized how quickly everyone else and I grew up this year. Dad told me about how I should be done with school fast, how he and my mom are retiring in a few years and things wouldn't be the same then.

It's been a pretty odd week for me; not that everything happening was of a great degree of weirdness, but mainly because I've been halfway between being totally jubilant about life, and complete depression.

It all started by the rejection of my candidature for a summer job I've already worked at. I quickly switched from being really angry to being really disappointed in myself. I guess I've overestimated my capacities, the result being to be screwed big time at the entrance ranking exam. But oh, well, I guess I can't blame anyone but myself; I knew exactly what to expect and didn't work much towards attaining that goal.

Now everything else seems to be working okay; good grades are getting in at school and snow has started to (finally) melt in this part of the country. I'm still feeling good overall, but having to find a job that is going to be (for sure) less interesting than the one I really wanted kind of pisses me off.

Okay. I don't recall going to a huge arena to watch a ''mainstream'' band. In fact, I usually go to the smallest clubs. I'm so underground. This being said, I can't say that I was disappointed by the Linkin Park concert I attended this weekend. It was, plain and simple, just too good to be true.

Chiodos opened up before even the place was half-packed. I must admit that I've never really listened to their stuff, and wasn't impressed either by what I had heard that far. You know, screamo, how matter you pull it out, is still screamo. But they came up with a pretty decent gig, trying their best to warm up the crowd before the main acts. Made me want to check out their stuff, but nothing more.

Now comes the band that I most wanted to see: Coheed & Cambria. Letting alone the shitty crowd that only made them feel like they didn't belong there for the whole 45 minutes they've spent on stage, I was in awe. Total awe. That band has been one of my favorites for a few years now, and I was quite surprised they played songs from all of their albums, including the awkward Delirium Trigger and the (extremely) epic In Keeping Secrets. Adding a keyboard section and two girls singing back vocals wasn't a bad idea either; it gave a certain dimension to (especially their old) songs. I felt kinda sad, though, that I didn't get to see them headlining; the people there barely knew who they were and the connection simply wasn't there. But hey, I guess I'll have the chance to see them again sometime.

Now for the headline. Where should I begin?

Let's do it from the start. As they set off the tone for the whole concert with their success What I've Done, it was well, a hit after another. A collection of very powerful songs that no one could resist to raise their fist and sing along to. No matter if it was a very introspective piece like Shadow of the Day or a more ''aggressive'' one like One Step Closer, the energy was overwhelming. Period. Even if anyone could argue about their actual musical talent, their capacities to put on a live show are leaving no doubt, plus they really look sincere at doing it. And to me, one couldn't ask more to a live performance than a bunch of musicians that are actually having fun.

I really enjoyed a stripped-down version of Breaking The Habit they've performed during the encore and the smooth, ambient transitions they put out between each song; the whole concert was flowing slowly, yet it was over before I knew it. They also integrated to their live performance a set of five suspended moving screens that displayed visuals in synch with the music. As little as I know about concerts like these, it was the first time I've heard about such technology.

Now I can't tell if I'm going to attend more arena rock concerts in the future (I got a scene ego that's struggling for survival), but one thing remains: I'll never regret going to this one.

Seeing Thrice in concert was probably the closest to a contact with any superior force I will ever have. Jokes of fan-crush aside, I left the venue with a total loss for words; a weird mixture of numbness and contemplation regarding what just happened.

Because what happened was everything but a concert.

It was a mass communion, a common cry of joy, of pain, of anger. The energy was flowing through all of us, feeling like we were about to raise above this bottomless sea. We were them, they were us.

I don't even know if I can explain any further because of the total state of awe I'm in. I feel like I'll never completely understand it for what it is. For it was hard and it was soft. It was the light of day and the sorrow of nights spent alone.

It was the nothing and the everything. Everything, but ones and zeroes.

So it took me a semester and a little bit to finally feel like I'm worth being at college.

Maybe I'm a fucking freak, or maybe I just don't try hard enough to belong. But last weekend was actually the first time I felt that at least some people appreciate me in this little town. And what a better way to discover the local music scene than to go at a small Battle of the Bands contest, bringing all the little people we are together on the campus.

I can't remember the last time a video moved me like this one did. Thrice's Digital Sea went way beyond what I was expecting from them, having in mind their post-hardcore aesthetic of fantastic landscapes and sceneries like they did with Red Sky.

They went instead with a quite simple broadshot of a store's aisles, constantly deconstructing and reconstructing. The people walking between them do not seem to have any purpose but to being there, wandering, seeing each other but never touching, shifting places at the slow pulse that haunts the melody.

Close to being minimalistic, it was probably not an effort to depict the song. Perhaps it was more meant to make us feel the song instead of seeing it, by switching between the verses' slow synthesized beats and the chorus' spacy atmosphere, with sea-like streams of blue lights from above, before witnessing the final static, where it all blurs as Dustin's voice becomes cracked, granular, digital.

Oddly enough, it was probably my best New Year's Eve in a long, long time. But it seems that in times like these I just can't stop thinking about what I've done this past year, and most of all, what I haven't.

Because every new year brings for me new plans, new projects, and before the year is even started I almost always begin with the assumption that I won't do a thing. I should play more music. I should travel a bit. I should put an extra effort in everything I do. I should finally try to settle and find someone I'd love. I should stop spending my days in front of that television and work out. I should, I should, and blah, blah, blah.

Every new year tells me that my time's been wasted a great deal. But I just can't help it. It's not even a lack of motivation; it's a lack of power. The power to say to myself: ''Hey, stop being such a sloth and get up''. The power to act for good. The power to acknowledge that I actually can do it.

Now I guess that all that's left is the time I've got in front of me, and my drive to use it for something good. And I think I will.

2008 came and I wasn't even excited about it. But I know it's gonna be a good year.

Whoa. It's been what, two months since I've last posted? Shit. Thinking that I was just starting my first semester at University, kinda lost and uncertain, and now I'm in the middle of the exam sessions, almost done with it.

Time goes by so friggin fast. But speed is not my obstacle; it always seems that my own will to do stuff while I have the opportunity is asleep, numb, keeping me on the edge of regreting what I haven't done.

Time is not too fast for me. I am too slow for time.

The weather was pretty hot in October when I last posted. Now, snow has slowly but surely covered all the green out there, silently surrounding everything that is. And while all of this was happening on the outside, I almost didn't notice from the focus I had on the inside.

The only thing that kinda connected me to a certain external reality was the daily commute, where I was either still sleeping or lost in the sea of others like me that didn't find any comfort in it. But I guess I still feel good in this incomfort; I don't think I am the type of person that would ever get used to a returning motive, time after time, while everything else is happening as I am looking in the wrong direction.

I just received an e-mail from the security department of the campus that I go to, and hell it creeps me out to think that such a moron is roaming the area. Ironically, I find it kinda funny too:

''To all the Campus community:

Please be advised that there has been a report of an exhibitionist on Campus. He was in the P6, P7 parking area (behind the Library) at 15:00 this afternoon. Security responded and advised the Police. Assisted by the Buildings and grounds team, Security tried to locate the individual. He was seen near the ninth fairway on the Golf Course path heading towards Winder Street. He was chased into the woods through the golf course, towards the train tracks in the direction of the back fields behind Paterson. Security along with the Buildings and Grounds team as well as some members of Residence life staff searched the woods from the Bike path to the Duck pond for over an hour but we did not find the individual.

He was first seen standing naked using his underwear as a mask. When later spotted by Security he was wearing black pants, black tee shirt, and black running shoes.

He is Caucasian, 30 – 35 years old, approximately six feet tall weighing 200 lbs, short brown hair, short goatee (three four day growth).

Although he did not threaten anyone, we take this type of incident very seriously so please be cautious, especially in remote areas.

Use the buddy system when traveling to and from Campus.

Avoid walking alone on the bike path between the Golf Club house and the Work shops.

If you seen any suspicious individual wandering around report it to Campus Security immediately by using 711 from an on campus phone or by dialing [Blank] from an outside phone or cell phone.

In light of recent assaults that have taken place at other Universities in Ontario, please use the buddy system if you must work late into the evening thus avoiding being alone in isolated buildings.